Extra for Floc #17

[ophanimera]

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Chapter One;

All-Expansive

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"Coming... soon? You mean that... thing isn't here yet?" Agatha implored.
"Yes, and that's exactly why I brought you all here today. You see, that book I showed you earlier was a collection of premonitions and prophecies. All of them are dreams that I have stored. Up here," He tapped on his head for emphasis and pulls out the notebook. "And in this book of mine. That moving darkness I showed you wasn't something I've ever seen before in the waking world, at least until now. I went exploring around the mountain and found a collapsed cave that had only recently appeared. After moving some stuff around, I went in and saw a well at the end, but... this well was corrupted. I could just feel it. And I think this was where the darkness was coming from. I think... I have a feeling that it's pure corruption that has developed sentience."

This corruption... it would spread. Left untouched, it would expand past the forest, tainting everything in its path of destruction. We had to stop it. I wasn't sure how we would, but we were going to, one way or another.

In the meanwhile, we had to stay in his den as the night continued to set in. The cicadas whined loudly outside. Summer definitely wasn't hot here, but there were too many bugs for it to be pleasant. Agatha cast a shield around the den to keep the insects from getting in and Whisper made beds for the three of us to sleep in. In a way, we had a silent pact to get rid of the Rogue Corruption, at least that's what I had thought originally. It was time for sleep, so then I slept. All was dark and dreamless, at least until morning.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight

[ophanimera]

Seething Water, Seething Hunger

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The sun peered down into the cave and I could hear the birds overhead. I stretched in my makeshift bed and began deconstructing it to put it away. Agatha woke up and yawned as she rolled out of bed, hopping back up to reach her usual floating height. She took down the force field and the sun beat down on us. She floated over and snuggled up against me, so I picked her up in my arms. This wasn't the first time we'd been away from home on an expedition, but this was habitual of the second morning out.

Whisper finished the task of putting away bedding materials back into his psychic chest and he scribbled something down in his notebook before snuffing out the flame. As far as I knew, he didn't like to walk. Not like Agatha, at least. She loved the feel of the earth under her paws and with no surprise, either. It blossomed underneath her paw pads.

Whisper had an entirely different ability than Agatha... he was able to make things appear to disappear, with what we call a Psychic Chest. If you can imagine a treasure chest, you're probably imagining something too small, but similar in design. Psychic Chests are bottomless "boxes", if you will, that can be created by Flox with the right psychic abilities. But enough about his abilities. That's not what you're here for. You want to know what we did next.

He started briefing us on today's plan, although not out loud.
From here on out, we have to keep a psychic link. It's the only way that we'll survive the Rogue Corruption. If we don't, there's a good chance your bodies will succumb to the power of the darkness and will become Corrupt. You two understand?
I nodded and Agatha bit back a response. She was in training for being Virtuous and straying near a Corrupt force would go against her teachings, but for the moment, she kept that stashed away from Whisper's link to us.
Yes, Wisp.
Good. Now that we've established that, out we go!

It took some length of hiking through the dense shrubbery, but eventually we reached the mountain's base. It was as forbidding as it looked from all those miles away, if not more so. Jagged rocks jutted out from all sides, and what was touched by the sun was overrun with coarse pine trees. At the bottom, several caves could be seen, so there was no knowing which particular one was the one that Whisper had been talking about.

We followed him to the mouth of a cavernous gape in the side, stalactites biting down at us from above. The air that came out was more like smog, thick and choking. I wrapped my scarf around my face and tightened it over my mouth. The Flox weren't affected, surprisingly. Maybe they were immune? I couldn't be sure.

Regardless, we delved further in. I felt our bonds tighten as the Flox brought our minds together into one corporeal mind. Together, we would be safer, at least that's what Whisper told me.
As we reached the bottom, I saw what he had been talking about earlier.

The water in the well grew restless and sloshed over the edge, seething over the top like a mass of writhing tentacles. It reached out for us, lashing again and again. I could feel it's desire for us to come nearer, but we resisted. At least, until Agatha broke her link of the chain and tried to bolt.

The water seized her and its energy poured through her key hole, corrupting her instantly. It stopped and splashed over her body, causing her to faintly splutter. The energy suddenly vanished from the room, and I took the opportunity to reach out to Agatha again with connection. I was forced back by a wall of darkness.

This wasn't my Agatha anymore... she became a Host.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

On The Hunt

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Her eyes were suddenly filled with mist and her teeth grew into grotesque fangs that peeked out from underneath her upper lip. She rasped something in a language I couldn't make out, but Whisper translated for me since we were still linked.
She said, or rather, I guess, it said, that there is no hope left for our kind. Or any kind. It will wipe us out with the powerful psychic body it took, species by species.

I could only watch as it vanished, whirling around at the mouth of the cave to snicker at our hopelessness, taking Agatha's body with it. I knew she was resisting with every fiber of her being, but it just wasn't enough to overpower it.

Whisper mentally screamed,We have to go after it! I would rather extinguish my flames than give her up to the Corruption. He gave me the power to float by drawing a rune on my chest with his tail tip and we took off, chasing after the it. It wasn't going to take my Agatha away from me, and Whisper wanted equally as bad to get her back... He was fond of her, that much was for certain.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

Accidents and Containments

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Up above the canopy, we chased it for quite a good way before Whisper cast a fireball out at Agatha's body. She whirled around and the darkness lashed out at us from her Keyhole. It wasn't a part of her yet... it was in her, though, and that was just as bad.

She winced slightly as it barged back into her after it missed. There was a good chance she was still in there. I just had to wait for the right opportunity. As it struck out again, I reached out to her with my link and she feebly touched in for a moment.
I'm sorry, Vulpi. I'm s-so sorry for this.. It was an accident... I'm sorry... And then the link was broken by the surging wall of darkness. Whisper touched back in after a few more shots at her.
I felt you reach her. Don't do that again. I'll try to contain her, but if you keep tapping in to your link with her, all of our energy will be wasted. I have to contain her with a containment spell, but this won't be easy.

I affirmed to this and he sent out a blazing orb of pure energy. It looked roughly like a bubble, only it was more opaque than a bubble should have been. Containment was a tricky process, and holding the Corruption in with Agatha would be even more challenging as there was a good chance it could merge with her form instead.

Eventually, after much struggle, he captured her in the sphere and brought it in closer. As he began to extract the Rogue Corruption, Agatha seethed, spitting out at us, an angry look crossing her visage. But I had to remember that this wasn't Agatha, at least not right now. The bubble widened and started to split off into two. I contributed my extra energy to Whisper and the Rogue Corruption was ripped from Agatha's body, leaving her body in one side of the bubble and the Corruption in the other. He split the bubble in two and released Agatha.

I caught her as she slowly began to fall, her wreath of flowers slightly glowing with virtuous energy. She was back to normal. My Agatha...

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

Slay the Beast!

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Agatha feebly nuzzled into my chest and I held her tightly, tying my shirt around her into a makeshift harness so that I could use my arms again.

The Corruption bucked and reeled in the Corruption Sphere, trying to escape with all its might. If it got back into Agatha, she wouldn't survive the second attack. The Corruption would become unstoppable, having full reign of her body... So, I had to stop it. Whisper and I joined forces again to reign in the bubble on the Corruption and although it was very taut in it's hold, the bubble occasionally spiked out, narrowly missing either myself or Wisp. But we could not hold it forever.

It burst out and took the ghost form of a Floc, it's fangs dripping with vile, corruptive fluid. I knew then what my job was. I pulled out a Virtuous item that I had been saving for Agatha's Catharsis, the pearl necklace. I unhinged the clasp and lashed it out. I would have to slay the beast

The single strand cracked like a whip, the diamond acting as a lethal weight on the end. I struck out at the shadow and left a lesion on its side. It roared with pain, spraying spittle. It wouldn't be down for long before retaliating, and so Whisper hurled another orb of fire at it, while I choked the life from its form with a whipping across the neck. Corruptive fluid sprayed like a waterfall, but it turned to sand as it fell to the earth. The Rogue Corruption was dying.

Whisper contained the last remnants of it's form in one last Containment Sphere, before burning them all to ash. The beast was gone for us... At least, for now and for a time we all would not outlive.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

Peace is Just a Misnomer

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We returned back to the cave with the ashes of the Rogue Corruption. Whisper said they would be useful for a menagerie of reasons, and that left me only to wonder for what purposes... He said that we'd probably throw the rest of it into a water basin, but after the incident at the Well, I had a feeling that water probably wouldn't be the best vessel for the malignant ash.

Agatha murmured in her sleep, still recovering from the invasion she had suffered. I didn't notice that she had retained any of the Corrupt characteristics or attitude... She seemed like my usual Agatha.

We sat around the hearth and Wisp drew the ashes around the fire in a circle. The fire turned bright purple and the smoke thickened. He told us that there was no need to worry and this was all a part of the extraction process. The fire continued to grow, but it couldn't escape the circle he had closed it in with. Eventually it burned down to a single coal, resonating with pure Corrupt energy. It was all over. He put the coal away in his Psychic Chest, in a special place reserved for items of its kind.

The Virtuous Necklace was still intact and fully Virtuous, so I clasped it on and we waited. Agatha yawned and woke up after the coal vanished from sight.
"I had the strangest dream, you guys..." She murmured.
I couldn't help but to laugh lightly at her comment and Whisper just shook his head in disbelief.
"It's nice to see you're back with us, Agatha." He smiled slightly and Agatha smiled back.

END

Thank you for reading the main story! I have two other sections after this to better develop on aspects of Whisper I hadn't yet fully touched on.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

The Key

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Whisper's key is very similar to the other Foxfire keys. It is made of pure Onyx and has blazing white fire surrounding it. It resonates with a Neutral energy. He hasn't put any stake into wanting to be Corrupt or Virtuous, but it's safe to assume he could be either one just as equally.
Whisper keeps this key safe by hiding it in his Psychic Chest, as he does with most everything else he owns. If it's not in his chest, he's probably out somewhere using it to test for something or another. It can help him detect water, among other things. It has also helped him more than once in discovering untouched sources of Corruption and Virtuousness, in addition to his dreams.

I hope to lay claim to this key, but there are certainly others who desire this Floc's key as much as I do and I hope that they are also going to be a good home for him. uvu

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]

[ophanimera]

[Return to the Form?]

The Notebook

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Whisper's notebook is black, with his name scratched into the leathery cover. He writes into it using his tail tip, which produces a charcoal substance that eventually dries like ink. He writes in a language he invented so that only he can read what is within. If anyone else is able to translate it, the ink markings will rewrite themselves into a different variant on the language, making it almost impossible to decipher.

Within the notebook are all of the dreams he has ever had and each of these holds some form of prophetic message, however slight it may be. After a dream comes true, he will cross it off the list and eliminate it from happening again. He constantly monitors around him to detect for any sign of his dreams coming true and they usually will, although maybe not in the way he was first expecting.

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
[Return to the Form?]